samba 2 sichuan: The Bamboo Sea

As I have mentioned in a previous post, Lesley's school schedule prevents us from doing any big trips. That being said, we have managed to get away for some day trips and weekend adventures.
This past weekend we got away to 'the Bamboo Sea', a park southeast of Chengdu made up of about 5000 acres of Bamboo forest.
Now as much as it has warmed up in Chengdu lately, even into the mid 20's, there hasn't been a lot of blue sky, due to the pollution. I was happy to get out of the city and be around nature for the weekend.
After a 5 or 6 hour bus ride southeast to the city of Yibin, we jumped in a taxi and caught a ride to the entrance of the park. We found a room at a small hotel just inside the park entrance, hired a driver, and set off to explore the park.
Our first stop was the Bamboo museum which had a notice at the entrance that said something like, "We know that our museum is kind of lame, so please tell is how we could make it better...". I guess they were saving money on electricity when we were there, as none of the lights were on. The displays at the museum showed the many uses of Bamboo throughout the ages in China.

Next we were off to the Gondola. It was a slow 20 minute ride, which I never find a bad thing when the view is part of the reason for the trip. In the small, rickety old 2 seater Gondola we took in the beauty and vastness of what 5000 acres of bamboo looks like. The landscape was rugged and hilly, with cliffs and waterfalls aplenty. One of my favorite things about bamboo is the way it moves in the wind, I find it very peaceful. For this, I had come to the right place.
At the top of the lift there was a pagoda-like structure that looked cool from a distance, but more like a concrete TV tower when we were on it.

That's one of the problems with China, there's a lot of stuff that looks old but isn't, and a lot of the old stuff has been 'renovated'. In fairness, many 'old' things were destroyed during the cultural revolution including people, works of art, books, and buildings. So now, as 'old' things are good for tourism, 'ancient' temples, and other faux-cultural relics are springing up everywhere.
Anyhow, after out gondola ride back down we walked along a forest pathway that paralleled a stream complete with waterfalls and statues of ancient Chinese guys playing Mahjong. After weeks in a city of 13 million people the forest was very quiet and peaceful.

After a busy afternoon it was time to experience one of the other things the Bamboo Sea is famous for, namely food. There is a plethora of mushrooms and other fungi that grow in the bamboo forest, as well edible parts of the bamboo itself. They don't come cheap but they do taste good. While we did try a few different mushroom and some bamboo, but we weren't brave enough to try the stuff that looked like eyeballs. After all, we are in China and I'm sure they eat eyeballs somewhere here...

The next day our driver picked us up at 8:30 and we were back at it. Our first stop was a lookout that didn't have much of a view due to a combination of mist and pollution, although I'm sure it's spectacular if you catch it at the right time. After that, it was off to see where they were building a new temple-like structure, with the new 'old' look I mentioned previously.
From there we headed to the 'sea within the sea', a small lake where we could paddle around on bamboo rafts. Our friends Steve and Nat had been the weekend before us, so we were forewarned...
Instead of a tranquil paddle around a peaceful lake, it was bamboo bumper boats with music pumping from speakers mounted to trees on the shore. We were lucky enough to share this small body of water with 80-100 Chinese tourists, many of whom I'm sure had never paddled anything ever. Nobody actually capsized, but a few came close. As the only foreigners on the lake we got lots of attention and 'Hellos'. Lesley even made friends with some people that crowned her with a fern wreath.

Our next stop was an impressive trail that ran down through the forest and along a cliff face. Along the cliff face section there were beautiful views, intricate carvings, as well as a Buddhist and a Taoist temple. Again being the only foreigners we got lots of attention, even having groups of people large and small ask to have their pictures taken with us. Lesley bought herself some 'good fortune' when she unknowingly paid Y38 for a stick of incense and the privilege of praying to Guanyin with a monk. For those who don't know, Y38 is about $8 and will easily buy 3 people a reasonable meal. Oh well, anything in the name of good fortune.

Once back up from the forest path we dined again on fungi and bamboo for what turned out to be our most expensive meal yet! Good food and a beer in a bamboo forest, priceless...